The road I'm on
by Julie Emerson
Summary: Ichigo was 73 but something sent her back into her teens. Now she re-lives her life, but differently. It's mating season and she has weird dreams about Kisshu's past, the alien is planning something big, Aoyama becomes more daring than ever. Soon, her heart will belong to one and her body to the other. Some chapters will be rated M.
1. Memories

Hello, ladies and gents. This new project of mine, called **The road I'm on **is focused on Kisshu/Ichigo. The first chapter will be long, but the others will be shorter (I hope not **too** short).

Rasain came with the idea of merging her story with this chapter to help create Ichigo's life, the scenes which do not appear in the manga or the anime and some fragments from this chapter you'll find in her own Kisshu/Ichigo one-shot called Nightmare. You should go and check her profile if you want to read Nightmare. It's so cute! I definitely recommend it.

Now, back to my story.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew or the lyrics.

Enjoy.

* * *

**The road I'm on...**

**Chapter One - Memories**

In the end she thought about him.

Somehow, she always knew it will all resume to this. She now stood alone outside her house, right under the tree where he used to sit and watch over her at night. She missed him, it was inevitable, but it's been so many years since they left, taking Kish with them.

"In the end, your happiness is all I wish for." He had said then, before their departure. She also remembered Masaya tensing next to her, warily watching the alien crouching on one knee in front of her.

"Be happy. That's all I ask."

Now, Ichigo sighed resignedly as the memories forced their way out of the small crevice where they used to reside.

Even though the aliens entered her life in May 2009, things between her and Kish began to get serious in 2010, starting with January. She still felt a little self-conscious when she thought about Masaya and it was normal, she thought. Everything started that day, when he asked her out and they went to the cinema. Now that she thought about it, she realized something important. The stain of brown that she saw out of the corner of her eye, the one she thought it was just an empty chair at the back of the room - well, she couldn't have been more wrong. The exaggerated feeling of nervousness when Masaya touched her arm, as if to keep her next to him, was caused by a pair of eyes that noted each one of her or his movements. Just now she realized that she was watched from above - not in a religious way, but more in an _alien_ way. Of course, the tender mind of a young girl living one of the most pleasant experiences of her life with her crush tended to push away the details, like the smirking Kish in the back row, or the fuming Kish (the one that just witnessed Masaya Aoyama's arm around his kitten's shoulders, claiming his rights of a boyfriend over his possession). Seemingly, at the young age of fifteen, Ichigo couldn't stand the thought of being a 'possession', in lack of a better term, even though she was, in fact, Kish's. Ever since the day he stole her first kiss.

Ichigo felt shivers spiking up and down her spine as the scene replayed under her closed eyelids, just as if she was again in the cinema, but without adding the alien in the background. It was just an experiment to see if after so many years she could still feel the emotions that she once bottled up inside.

* * *

In the beginning they were the only ones

(**January**)

A few days passed since the last attack, but Ichigo couldn't complain. It had been the most delightful week of her life.

She loved the way her hand was tightly held by the handsome boy seated next to her. She was on cloud nine. His simple smile brought warmth to her heart and she couldn't take her eyes off of his face while he watched the screen with interest.

She swayed in a vortex of feelings, emotions tinged by love.

For a short moment, his eyes met hers and he smiled affectionately, seeing how flushed she was.

"It's kind of warm in here, isn't it?"

She was glad that the room was indeed too hot because this way she had an excuse. Instead of responding, though, she nodded sharply and abruptly turned her head toward the movie. He caught her staring at him. Still, she burnt the concentrated expression on his face in her mind as she spied on him from the corner of her eye.

Why was it so hard to move closer to him?

Just a thin arm-chair separated them, but she wasn't anywhere near close to it. She kept her distance as if it was going to hurt her.

_Okay, calm down. He's not going to bite you. _Ichigo encouraged herself.

_Though, she wouldn't mind. _A look of astonishment crossed through her widened eyes.

Just as it came, the thought hid in the back of her head. The blush was now more visible than before.

She moved a little more to the side, closing in the space between her and Aoyama's bodies. Now, she could feel heat emanating from him and she got the exact opposite reaction to it: she shuddered. This caused Aoyama to look back at her with concern and he freed his hand from her. In that moment, Ichigo's heart sunk, but when his arm encircled her shoulders and brought her close, she closed her eyes and cherished the moment as intensely as she could. Her empty palm now fisted in her lap, beside the one that held the small purse.

The movie carried on.

* * *

Kisshu never told her what his impression was when he first landed on Earth, but on the other hand, she never asked him. Not that she wasn't really interested, but more because she didn't want to seem like she really cared. He was their enemy after all, hers more than the others'. Just a few days ago she caught herself recalling the hatred she carried within whenever he was around, only to make another discovery. It was not hate she felt when he took her into his arms and stole kisses from her, but shame that came naturally from a virgin, innocent girl who was exposed to his smugness and audacity. Still, she wondered how Kish had thought of humans before he met her, so she felt daring enough to put herself into his shoes, just to re-enact his arrival.

New to this planet

(**March**)

The mission was going to bring him a trophy this time. A triumph against this hostile new world that has been presented to their race as a prize. A world seen through their eyes as a source of efficacious energy, frequently called Mew Aqua. The thought of cupping it in his palm sent shivers of fulfillment down his back.

The dimension undulated under the alien's feet as he appeared into the sky, above the edge of a forest. He kept his body suspended in nothing but thin air as he called to life sparkling blue granules. He grazed their surfaces with one of his nails and then his palm shot up toward the azure blue that rose over his head, sending all those tiny flakes upward. As they fell back down, they randomly integrated into flying birds, stones and trees, coming together as one.

_Here we go. _A devilish smile emerged onto his face while a perilous glimmer surfaced from the depths of a liquid golden gaze.

He felt powerful as he compared himself to them and Ichigo was absolutely sure that he was restrainig himself in battle all-along, so not to hurt her or the ones she cared about. He put a leash around his own neck and handed the other end to her.

Her heart stung when she found out that he trusted her with his own life and she'd been irresponsible.

* * *

For a while, something strange was going on and it culminated with Kisshu suddenly retreating from a battle that he had almost won. Ichigo spent a lot of time thinking about this until she reached her conclusion.

Retreat

(**June**)

The hit blew the tree to smithereens. Pieces of it scattered in the air above the Mew's head and they hit the ground at the same time as the Chimera delivered another blow in Mint's direction. She pushed her palm into the earth beneath and let the wind bring her up above the creature's head, then she came back down.

"This can't be happening... Pudding, watch out!"

Chimera Animal's sharp tail dug into a stone, breaking it in two just as the monkey girl leaped into the air, taking the other one with her.

"You should be more careful, na no da."

Just as soon as they came back to their previous position, the creature spun on the soles of its feet and knocked down both of the girls. The blonde yelped in pain and surprise.

Something warm spilled against her chest and she didn't dare to look down and see what it is, she didn't have the time because a huge figure shadowed above her, ready to stab.

"Pudding-chan, Mint-san!" Lettuce sprung from her place toward her teammates, one hand covering her head and the other swinging swiftly through the air .

"Get her!" The command from above triggered another attack.

Claws darted at the girl's neck, sending her flying forward, knocking the air out of her lungs. The sudden movement sent the breeze through Zakuro's hair, pushing it back as she made an attempt to yell her attack.

"Ribbon Zakuro Sp -"

Before she finished, Ichigo was pushed from the back right into her friend and Kisshu no longer stood on the side, watching.

He closed his eyes, adverting his gaze from the girl he cared for, the one that now laid on the ground with blood splattered across her face. He should be retreating now, before they ever got the chance to hit him and anger him even more. The said feeling was enough to make him do something stupid.

So he dematerialized, oblivious to the fact that he just left behind five stupefied mews.

Kisshu, as Ichigo already knew, was more powerful than any of the mews and it was extremely easy for him to listen to the force which rested deep within him, to the rhythm of pure adrenaline coursing through his veins. He nearly killed them all that day. Seeing Ichigo sprawled beneath his feet, covered in blood (the person he cared for more than anything) triggered caution inside him and realization struck. He had to retreat, even though that meant damaging the image of himself as a weak opponent. Since then, the mews made sure not to underestimate him anymore.

* * *

One of the things she regretted the most was that she always denied him the pleasure of taking her with him, even for a day or two. She was so stuck up with Masaya and the whole enemy thing that she never stopped to consider his demands. Actually, pleas.

Say you will

(**August**)

_It's taking you too long to decide_

_And I don't want to be the one_

_Crying over wasted time._

He had tried to convince her so many times that this was the best option she had, he couldn't bear it. Even though, the girl still stood her ground, stubborn as ever. Her eyes shot fireballs through him as if he were nothing else than the object her hatred centered around.

"Say you will come, Ichigo. It's that simple. It's the answer to your call out to happiness." Kish used to say, ignoring the insults that met his words or the complete denial that defined her body language. She was so small as he towered over her, trying to look powerful and demanding. It scared her, but it never struck Kisshu that this was a mistake. Until now.

"Don't pretend you want to continue this fight, I don't want to, either. So tell the truth and come with me." Now and then, the courage carved into her features vanished and was replaced by the frantic movement of her orbs as they rolled around in search of a weapon.

He cornered her, a smirk tugging at his lips. He hid his desire by simply kneeling in front of her, offering her a chance to avoid him and run back home. And that's what she wanted to do, he saw her hesitating a moment, waiting for his words to continue, even though they were spoken in vain.

Kisshu's skin felt hotter than before as his right calf was pressed into the cement ground.

"I feel like I'm losing control with you crawling under my skin, intoxicating every sane inch of me."

Ichigo froze, her eyes turned blank as she listened carefully. He intended to let her know of his late night thoughts, when he couldn't sleep and just stared into the darkness above him, where the ceiling should be, seeing her face, hearing her laugh, feeling her touch.

"I don't want to take drastic measures, kitten. So come, stop wasting time."

He heard her sharp intake of breath and her head moved from left to right. Once again, denial was shoved into his face. He couldn't help but feel disappointed. He offered her something forbidden. The escape from this war, the advantage of meeting a new planet with a new species, he gave himself to her. He spilled his heart out on a silver plateau for her to take it.

It broke his soul seeing her like this. Refusing everything by just endlessly repeating 'no'.

It always came to this. She acted this way every time, until he could no longer find his patience and he snapped.

"Stop lying to yourself." He became bitter and he found the thought of taking her with him by force strangely familiar. "Stop acting like a coward. Just stop and say you will come. It's not hard".

One last 'no' and he attacked. They had been going through the same scenario for over a year now, still, every time was the same.

The thought of him losing control was something that still brought fear into her veins. The sexual kind of control loss, or a violent one, it never mattered. Even though she never – ever – imagined herself being hurt by him, she still had the urge to run away. Of course, he sometimes brought up more… let's say, mature matters. Things like sex, but she shied away and closed herself from him. She turned her back and set the auto-pilot on, the one that kept saying "no". She refused everything, but she was a stupid child.

* * *

No diary would be complete if the owner doesn't write some intimate things in it, something that would make it earn the right to be called a 'diary'. Of course, this book will be open for all to read.

A kiss from Kish

(**September**)

The leaves brushed the ground as wind pushed forcefully at their back. It had the smell of autumn, but the heat of the summer, a combination that reminded Ichigo of the days when she used to go fishing with her grandfather. She always ended up by carrying the food basket, the sun protection cream and the lollipop she regularly stole from her mother's jeans back pocket. She never stopped wondering if the woman knew who stole them, because Sakura never changed their place, even though she was clearly upset by the fact that they always disappeared before she had a chance to personally give them to Ichigo. It was the child's secret, every time she went fishing, she stuffed it in her pocket when no one was watching, making sure that she'll eat it later.

Now she couldn't help but giggle at the memory. Of course her mother knew who took the sweets. It was as clear as day, but the girl was so naïve back then.

"Hey, pretty kitty. What's so funny?" The cheery voice was no longer suprising, much like the owner. With time, he became so predictable that Ichigo had to stifle a yawn as she watched him react over different things. As always, though, the cat genes in her body kicked in when she felt him looking over her shoulder, lips almost touching her ear. She jumped up and as far away from him as she could, making sure she landed with her face to him, so that he won't do anything that'll put her into disadvantage. Well, she developed some skills, already, and it was pretty damn obvious that he was very pleased at her feedback to his presence. They shared a lot of time together, much to her annoyance. She could bet that she was the treatment to his boredom judging by the excited bouncing of his body into the air. It was as if he imitated Taruto's gestures when he saw Pudding. Yeah. Ichigo was his own, personal Pudding.

Wait. Personal?

She mentally smacked herself and Kisshu observed her uneasiness.

"What's wrong, koneko-chan?" He edged dangerously closer to her, so much that her cheeks would have put tomatoes at shame with their color.

"N-nothing."

He seemed reluctant in believing her stammering and when he leaned down to look her in the eye, she felt his scent flooding her nostrils.

"Are you sure?" He made no effort in hiding the knowing smile on his face as his hand shot out and grabbed at something above her head. Then she felt it, her ear being rubbed. She couldn't help but close her eyes and purr, without getting the slightest hint of what the alien had in mind. He playfully smacked his lips and the sound brought her back to reality, in time to lift her eyelids and be greeted by the weight of a mouth that just descended upon hers and eyes capable of hypnotizing her into whatever Kisshu was thinking about.

Then, it was over. The forest green haired teenager rapidly inched away from her so that her fist would collide with nothing but air. He sprung upwards, effortlessly floating above her with a smile so devilish, that she caught herself thinking about hiding under the closest rock because of shame.

"See you later."

And the air rippled around his body, pulling him away from her into nothingness.

He teleported, leaving behind him a very flustered, but not at all surprised, Ichigo.

That boy surely knew how to make her blush. Whether he said something inappropriate or did something equally distressing.

* * *

They started getting more intimate with each other out of accident. For once, Ichigo blamed herself for treating the boy badly.

Mutual acceptance

(**October/November**)

The alien sat down on the edge of her bed as she wiped away the blood on his arms. The scratches were deep and didn't stop bleeding until she washed them with hydrogen peroxide. She couldn't look up to meet his eyes, because she was too ashamed of what she had just done.

Mentally, she smacked away that thought. It was his fault, too, she added. Why was he even there, in the middle of the night, standing above her bed?

Inwardly, she sighed, and before she could stop herself she got up to inspect the bruise on his forehead. She was sure her own forehead had one, too. She hit him pretty hard. Ichigo groaned.

**No.** She shouldn't care whether she hit him or not. She hit herself against his damned forehead, okay? _His_ fault, not hers!

One of Kish's hands locked around her wrist to stop her from bandaging the cuts. He must have noticed the conflict she was having with herself, because he made her sit down next to him and touched her own forehead bump.

Ichigo winced and backed off a little. Kisshu grimaced as if it hurt him, too, at the same time and whispered, loud enough only for her to hear:

"I'm sorry." The girl looked puzzled, so he added:

"Because I was there when you woke up and scared you."

He was wrong. Ichigo knew.

"You didn't…" she stopped, pausing to gather her words. "I had a bad dream. That's all. I was already freaked out."

"Yeah but I added to it."

And they silenced themselves, letting all the explanations go. Anymore words and Ichigo's face will be set aflame. It already felt like she had a sunburn. She didn't expect to feel better, though, when Kisshu's palm gently met one side of her throat. It was cold, even though inside her room the heat was on.

It was, actually, the 31st of October. The Halloween. Her eyes went to the window. Actually, maybe it was the 1st of November. The sky started to lighten up.

She couldn't contain the yawn any longer, and when she let it out, the alien pushed her back against the mattress, dragging the quilt over her legs and got up.

She panicked.

"Where are you going?" Ichigo asked, without thinking. She was too tired, though, to really care if she asked stupid things.

The alien looked resigned as he stretched his scratched arms behind his head and then backed off from her bed.

"I'll leave, you have to sleep." He explained.

"Well, could you at least stay a little longer, like… fifteen minutes, or so?" The question that rose in the alien's eyes made Ichigo add another thing to her pretty convincing demand.

"Just until I fall asleep, really." But she already said it as her eyelids closed over her eyes.

The muffled okay coming from the alien almost passed unheard by her ears. Almost. And she smiled, knowing that he couldn't say no to something like that. Not now, not ever. So he sat back down, beside her, laying his back against the empty side of the mattress.

She fell fast asleep, snuggling farther into his embrace. Kisshu placed a soft kiss upon her forehead and soon, he was drowning into a deep slumber, too.

At that time, sleeping in the same bed with her 'enemy' sounded terrifying and completely impossible. But the next morning, for once in her life, she started seeing their relationship in its true depth.

* * *

The last entry she had done before the official end of their story and the aliens' departure was the most cherished memory of them all, besides her first kiss. One of the scenes she found very tragic and romantic at the same time.

Her heart clenched within her and she had a lump in her throat from the tears that threatened to spill across her face. It didn't matter, though, no one was standing there, above her head, into the tree anymore. He would never know what was in her heart, all these things she kept locked away during the day. At night, everything was different. She never fell asleep immediately, these monsters of her past returned to claw at her with grim expressions and full determination in their eyes. All these monsters she kept caged were her regrets, suppressed feelings for a person that stole her away, even if not physically, but mentally. She now realized that she belonged to him. She always did. But still, it was too late.

Running out of time

(**December**)

He couldn't take his eyes from her as she swayed to music in the middle of her bedroom. Her cheeks were becoming rosier by the second while she twirled round and round to a fast paced melody. The window misted rapidly as the air inside the room became hotter and the girl panted with exhaustion. She abruptly stopped moving, facing the full length mirror on the wall directly as her skirt brushed against her pale legs one more time before setting in place. As she took in her appearance, Kisshu shifted slightly to the right, so that the peachy curtain would mask his figure from her. He was surprised seeing her like this at this late hour of the night. The light coming from inside spilled across his features as he widened his eyes to the sight. She was so beautiful.

Ichigo moved her palm from side to side in front of her face, sending little breezes of air to chase away the hotness coming off of her skin in waves. She backed away, her calves pushing against the edge of the bed and she let her body drop down onto the mattress with a deaf sound. She sighed, unaware of the liquid amber orbs that dripped only loving admiration over her body. Her day had been amazing and the memories of another date filled her up to the limit with pure energy. It was one in the morning and she couldn't shut her brain down, even if it was for a few minutes. Oh, that smile and that fair complexion, the entire flawless being of his got her engine running instantly. No one could ever be more luckier than she was at the moment.

Life was wonderful. Especially with Masaya at her side.

His skin was freezing as he clung one more moment to the snow-covered branches in the tree outside her balcony. The deep cut planted right onto his abdomen sent bitter shocks of pain through his chest, his muscles spasmed in anticipation when he sat back down onto the tree. Kisshu felt a pang of regret along with the taste of thick blood on his tongue when he thought of his mistake. He shouldn't have aimed for Ichigo when that asshole was right behind her. He would have gotten away with a few scratches and nothing more, but she was too helpless and he, too tempted. He needed the feeling of her skin under his fingers to assure himself that she was not hurt by Taruto or Pai. But that so-called guardian of hers - the Blue Knight - misunderstood his actions. He dug his blade deep into Kisshu's body when the alien sprung toward the pink haired girl. And that was it, from there, his memory clouded. He fell to the ground without as much as seeing his beloved's face, although he felt it on him. He spat the metallic liquid in his mouth unto the ground and swore to himself that one day he'll get rid of that jackass. He was to reckless for Ichigo's sake, he did stupid things. Or that was what Kisshu said to his other self inwardly, to convince himself that he was better than the Blue Knight. Or Masaya. Or other guys that tended to be around her most of the time.

A coughing fit hit him out of nowhere and his body unbalanced from the tree's arm, feet dangling in the air above the ground. He had to get back to the base for medical attention before the massive blood loss would lead him to more serious complications. And that's when he heard her voice.

_I guess we've underestimated love_

_Or why would we hurt each other?_

She was singing.

_Don't you find that ironical_

_When love is all we need..._

She was singing about love. Indeed, that was ironical, seeing how the love of his life was laying safely on her bed, not even a small cut on her skin, dreaming of some tree hugger while he fought for his own life outside her window, wasting precious time only to watch her, to be sure that even if he was going to die, he'll die knowing he saw her for one last time. And she was happy at the time.

She was completely oblivious to the fact that now the curtain was not hiding Kisshu anymore, or that he was holding onto his abdomen with both hands, blood gushing through his milky fingers and onto the snow below.

He had to leave now, the still lucid part of his brain shouted, but the one already fogged by sleepiness, pain and the wish to stay a little longer said "No, it is too soon". He almost convinced himself that if he teleported now, he'll lose her. She'll disappear into a cloud of smoke that'll slip through his fingers as if it wasn't even there before. But he felt that it was time to go…

He pushed himself to a standing position, then he backed away from her window with a promise. He'll be back in a few days .

He left her behind singing along to the music, but as he dematerialized he couldn't help but notice that her lips stopped moving to the lyrics and were now forming a very surprised "o" as she finally noticed his presence. The curtains no longer hid his figure from her, he was gone.

* * *

"Mom, they called. It's time to leave now!"

Ichigo flinched as she heard her daughter yell from the front of the house and she turned toward her, but not before she stared a few moments more at the tree. She could see her secrets in its bark, and she found it weird enough that the face of her childhood crush was slowly fading from her mind, instead, the one of the alien - always smirking down at her with a look in his eyes that always made her squirm - took its place. New, refreshing, revigorant for her eyes and body like cold water. In her mind, he'll always be young and playful, he'll always say things like "Cat got your tongue?" or "I didn't know you like it that way" when it was absolutely unecessarily, and most important of all... he'll always call her Kittycat, kitten and koneko-chan. She always loved his petnames, but they were like most of all the other things linked to him, ignored and denied.

The illusion of Kisshu sitting there, on the branch that was the nearest to her balcony, was more alive than ever. A teenaged alien who fought for her life more than for his own, who loved her more than his own people and who, in her mind, would always love her. She wanted to keep it that way. She knew that maybe he was very old, with grandchildren and a loving wife at his side, or who knows. Maybe he was dead, he kept being loyal to her, he never married and never had children. But it was sad... Oh, it was so sad.

Numbed from standing still for so long, Ichigo turned around and looked at her thirty-seventh year old daughter and her little granddaughter, who was smiling from Ayame's arms at the now white-haired, ex-mew.

Ichigo lived her life. She had done it without allowing her past to haunt her. Maybe he had, too. It really was a shame that only recently she accepted her love for him.

Ichigo's hands traveled down her face as she stared out the car window. It was wrinkle-wreathed, her beauty faded, her strength faded. Only her life passed on through the next generation.

She closed the notebook, letting her pen down. She wasn't able to say all of this aloud, not without breaking down and cutting into the pieces of her own broken soul. She only hoped that once her daughter and granddaughter read her story, they will keep their eyes open and not make the same mistakes.

Treat every person in your life like you want to be treated yourself, because you cannot afford losing them, no matter how much you hate them. With each passing year you gain experience and you'll see your past differently, you'll gather regrets. Monsters of mind and destroyers of soul.

With that, Ichigo took a sharp intake of breath and rested her forehead against the cool glass for the rest of the journey. What she saw when the car came to a halt almost caused her a heart attack, for she couldn't believe it.

_To be continued._

* * *

This story is not beta-ed and I'm aware that I have some grammatical errors, so please bear with me.

If you look down you can read "Type your review here." You should do that, reviews keep me going, people, whether they are short or long. (if you're not flaming, everything's fine with me) Thanks.

And if you wonder, the lyrics are from Evanescence - Say you will and Celine Dion - Love is all we need, I DO NOT own them. The songs The road I'm on and Memories belong to Three Doors Down and Within Temptation.


	2. Surprise

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew.

**The road I'm on...**

**Chapter Two - Surprise**

There was an eerie silence in the car without Ichigo's little granddaughter there and she felt the boredom rising until she found herself playing a strange game. She scanned the city as the Ford slid lazily down the road. As in most Tokyo streets, the buildings stood into a continuous row of different heights and colors, the clouds reflecting into the glass towers which grazed the sky. Back then when she was a girl and lived with her parents, the city was much smaller, both in size and prestige. Now it was recognized by countries and organizations all around the world as one of the most luxurious regions in Japan, where some really politically powerful men lived and where science met a major progress twenty years ago. Ichigo never wondered actually what was at the far end of the stick, what exactly caused the rush of evolution in the last twenty years; in fact, when the car stopped just outside Tokyo, she saw a huge metallic hangar with thick supporting pillars on either side of the main entrance. She was awed. Even though, she could easily guess the answer to her own question as her eyes swept over the chest of a passerby in the distance which held the NASA seal right in the middle.

"We're here." Ayame announced just when she was about to close the door behind her and come over Ichigo's side to help her get out of the car. The old woman couldn't believe her eyes and she took the helping hand of her daughter without really realizing it. She got up insecurely, because she felt her knees trembling beneath the weight of her own body when the wooden cane was placed between her bony fingers to keep her standing.

She saw these kind of places before, in movies. From outside, no one could guess what was really going on, but all the people that jogged all around the place was a major give away. The excited look on their faces, their frantic movements, the way they spoke: loud and quick. Half of them wore white cotton coats over their civilian clothes and they reminded Ichigo of the doctors she was so afraid of. There was a great amount of noise and she listened closely for a moment, ignoring Ayame's pull on her elbow. It was a low constant murmur, like a quiet car engine coming from the hangar in front of her. Movie directors usually loved to enhance the mystery by dropping a few armed men near it, but she saw none.

_So this isn't a movie set. _She thought with a hint of uncertainty.

As Ichigo took a step forward, her daughter carefully sustaining her on one side, she saw the 'doctors' suddenly noticing her. Her lips felt dry and cracked and she needed to remind herself that she wasn't the little, eye-catching girl with pomegranate colored hair and vitality racing under her skin. She imagined what they were seeing: an old woman with a hunchback that brought her head closer to the ground she walked hesitatingly on, a pair of dull and saddened eyes over which time had passed unmercifully, under their shelter a nose as wrinkled as a Shar-Pei hid a small red mouth and a chin dimple. If the aliens met her now, how would they react? Undoubtedly, Taruto would call her an old hag with a good reason. And she won't feel annoyed, like she used to, because that's what she was now.

The sea of people parted, making a path for her to take until she and the woman beside her reached the double doors, which were wide open. She was moving slowly, her age showing in every little detail of her being – her walk, her talk, her body, her perception over things. She wasn't as quick on her pins as she used to be, Ichigo became reserved. She started keeping things to herself, banning her mind from rudely making remarks over simple events in her and her family's life. Now and again she still showed her young self, the mean Ichigo that her blond boss got used to meet when he gave her too much orders at once and upset her, forty years ago.

Ichigo sighed.

She never stopped working at the café after the aliens left, but she took a break when she went to England with Masaya. She came back and realized, more than ever, that money was important. In a cruel way that life picked particularly for her. First thing her ears heard as she disembarked from the plane was that her mother had been diagnosed with hepatic cancer in the final stage while she was there and her father felt spiritually destroyed by the bad news. Her life turned out to be shredded to pieces once again. Now, as she looked back, she quivered in her shoes.

"Are you cold, mother?" Ayame eyed her with thick concern in her blue eyes. She had her father's eyes. She had everything from that man Ichigo chose to marry when she was twenty-eight. His smile, his antics, his skin. Only her hair held some traces of red, making it auburn than the distinct carmine Ichigo wore all her life. She wasn't stupid, her mind was another strong point inherited from her father. Her daughter was smart and spontaneous, creative and even if she looked pretty small, her physical force could exceed a man's.

"No, dear. Not at all." With a reassuring smile, the wrinkle-skinned woman ushered her thoughts and memories back to their lair in the back of her mind and rotated her head to see where she was lead to. She promised herself a few days ago that'll she'll stay focused on business.

A well built body clad in a black suit with a tie hanging loosely around his neck and sparkling leather shoes on his feet was blocking her entrance and view, for she couldn't quite see what they were holding inside the improvised building exactly. The ex mew's eyes silently scrutinized the man's face, in search of a clue that would elucidate the situation she found herself in. He barely smiled. A professional expression covered his square face, with a set jaw and determined stare, one that said nothing about him and why was he there. Then, she heard the short greeting words coming from her auburn haired daughter as she nodded curtly toward him. Ichigo spied on her with her peripheral vision and she couldn't help but inwardly snicker at her too polite behavior. She never remembered her little Ayame being so qualified in talking with important people. She was more of a brat, so to say, always getting herself in trouble because of her big mouth and bad vocabulary.

The woman could swear that his hair had the color of Belgian chocolate truffles she adored so much, the ones with the cinnamon aroma. For a moment she even sensed its sweet smell tickling her nose on which the cruel time stepped on. Except, he was bathed in expensive cologne that she felt rolling into her lungs as she got closer to him. She felt suffocated, but said nothing and kept a blank look plastered on her face, without showing the disappointment. He gave her a short nod of his head and only then he permitted himself to show a real smile, one which really took her by surprise.

"Ma'am, I believe that the word 'overjoyed' is a little too coarse to describe what I am feeling now, but I am extremely pleased to finally meet you." Ichigo noticed his extended hand and his clean short-clipped nails before she shook it and retreated her arm back to her daughter's. His skin was smooth and peachy. Only then she allowed herself to smile a little, just like he did earlier, but her expression came out confused. Then she heard his name. 'Daisuke Hama'. It mean nothing to her, just another name of a soon-to-be forgotten face.

Ayame took the initiative of presenting herself and her mother when she understood that the woman wasn't going to do it. She simply said her own name, Ayame Masato, and then Ichigo Momomiya. After the divorce, Ichigo chose to return back to her old name. Through that simple choice she assured herself that she'll keep the memories of Momomiya that used to be the Mew and daughter of Shintaro and Sakura Momomiya forever alive, without shoving them under a name of a man. After all, if she turned into an independent, strong lady over the years, she'll die the same.

The man, or 'Daisuke Hama', as he said, lead them through the doors and down a corridor, until they reached an office. Ichigo found herself pretty disheartened when she couldn't take a look at what they supposedly hid in the hangar. She was offered a glass of water which she quietly refused just as soon as they were nicely seated in Mr Hama's office. The room was not big at all. It was, like the rest of the building, improvised with fake walls, shelves with books and files, a desk, a couch and a wooden chair in which he seated himself. Of course, not before inviting the two women to sit down on the leather-covered couch with a light shake of his hand.

"I am one of NASA's representatives and before I begin informing you on this case, I have to make sure no one will ever find out about this." When the two nodded without really saying anything, he caught the idea. The look in Ayame's eyes was enough to keep his mouth shut. Ichigo was a respectable old woman, but the man had to make sure.

"Alright. As you already assume, we found out everything about the so-called Mew Mew Project, initiated by a man who went by the name of Ryou Shirogane, in order to improve his parents' records on genetic experiments applied to animals. We know he succeeded, somehow, to infuse you and your friends with endangered species of animal DNA. Still, we have no idea how he could do that. Frankly, our researchers are still working on it, but they keep failing."

Ichigo listened to him as his tone became very serious and his stare fixated on her as if he was going to bore a hole through her cranium. As she analyzed each one of his words, she couldn't help but wonder over the fact that they had called her there to experiment on her. She was 73, it didn't matter if she died or lived anymore, but would her daughter let something like that happen? Well, maybe if she would be given a large amount of money, yes. The ex-mew felt the blood drain from her face and her fingers began to numb in her lap. She had to take a deep breath to find her courage and ask:

"So, basically, you want me as your lab rat?" She felt puzzled and embarrassed by her own question and this only intensified when Daisuke suppressed a laugh. His cheeks reddened considerably and Ichigo leaned back into her place a little more relaxed than before.

"No, no. I heard you just finished your autobiographical novel. That would be enough to satisfy the curiosity that lays in everyone's mind around here, so we'll just wait until it'll be published." He clarified. He was so amused by her naïvety that his eyes sparkled with laughter.

Ayame said nothing, the things she knew about Ichigo's past were tantamount to zero. Her mother knew this. The whole point of the book was to reveal it to her, not to some weirdoes that played Dexter's Laboratory with NASA's equipment and discoveries.

"You do realize that there's nothing about the DNA infusion procedure in there, except for the goings-on I personally went through. I have no scientific information about any of this, whatsoever." Ichigo pressed harder on the matter to get her point across and she was met by an uninterested shrug that reminded her: sure. Daisuke was just a representative, not a scientist. He found no point in reading complicated things when he felt content with a fantasy story about a war between two worlds. And, surprisingly, she was cool with it. She was okay with the fact that her life will be seen as a Steven Spielberg script.

Her daughter must have read the thoughts from Ichigo's eyes and misunderstood them, for she stroke her mother's hand comfortingly.

"Are you okay?" She asked with whispered words and something dangerously close to pity in her eyes. As the ex-mew struggled to keep up her composure, she swallowed the reply she wanted to give in exchange and smile reassuringly.

Daisuke monitored the scene closely without saying a word, fearing that he might intrude a family moment.

Time slipped away as he and Ayame waited for Ichigo to return from the bathroom. When the old woman was back, seated in her previous spot on the couch, Mr Hama halted unexpectedly from his chair, taking the women by surprise. He sighed and his eyes flickered to the door which Ichigo just came through.

"Please wait just a moment." He disappeared into the hall and came back holding something that resembled a pointy weapon. His pink-cheeked face reflected into the glossy surface of the blade. He then said on a voice that betrayed his pride:

"Ma'am, I believe you know what this is."

Ichigo froze when Daisuke placed into her hands an object that she never even dreamed of seeing again. The representative silently watched her shaky head bow to one side in astonishment and tried to penetrate into her mind by concentrating on her brown eyes. He read her thoughts through her gestures and he could tell that he just made one of her long time dreams come true. He was glad, but he wasn't doing her a favor. His action would soon lead them to another level, one that implied aliens.

She instantly felt renewed as her mind went back to that time when the alien pointed it at her throat, threatening her life. It was weird that she missed those scenes, the battles. She traced it with her fingers. She became cautious not to cut her hands and stain the weapon, it was too precious. The Sai was as shiny as it had been when she first saw it in his hand on a combat they once had. He had lost the fight, he wasn't expecting her leg to hit him in the back of his head and to throw him to the ground, nor did he know that she was going to deepen her claws into his cheeks to spill his blood. This kind of blade, so sharp and deadly, was meant to cut her throat, but it didn't. It never even scratched her. He made sure of that, never bringing it too close to her skin as to provoke any damage. The azure diamond inlaid in its hilt was clear as water, a map of Kisshu's life, of a warrior's destiny.

There was no doubt in her mind that a bad thing happened to _him_. Something like that (she gazed at what she held in her arms) was not meant to be left behind for someone to find it in the future. It was not a souvenir from another planet.

She looked up, searching the face of the man curiously, thoroughly. No one in their right mind would do this to her if they knew what Kisshu meant to her. _No one_, she was sure of that. But these… these guys, researchers, they imagined they were of some high importance to her. They were delusional if they thought that she was interested in this thing in a scientific way only. She lived through all those battles with those three aliens, she met the Cyniclons in person, used to spend her free time with one specific green haired teenager more than she did with her own friends. Now, the NASA representative indicated that one of them, if not all three, were dead.

Ichigo panicked. The fear settled deep into her bones like a shockwave and all the photographs she kept inside her mind, all the moments with Masaya, her team, her parents, her enemies and Kisshu flew away with the wind, scattered everywhere into her brain. She saw them all at the same time and she didn't realize she was crying until she heard her terrified, cracked voice:

"Where is the owner of the Sai? I want to see him."

Daisuke wasn't surprised to hear Ichigo's request. He had known from the start what she'll ask for, to see the alien, but he was unauthorized to take her _there_. After all, at 73, heart attacks were pretty frequent and he didn't want to cause her one by showing her something so disturbing.

"I'll make sure a plane will be ready to take you there in a week."

He caught her expression as she wanted to say something, most probably an "I want to go now", but her daughter interfered and Daisuke couldn't help but feel relief taking over him.

"The spaceship in the hangar. Is that theirs?" That seemed to catch Ichigo's interest and she shifted her mind from whatever she wanted to say, looking extremely interested all of a sudden.

"Yes. Come this way and I'll show it to you."

* * *

**A/N:** What do you think of old Ichigo? I hope you won't get used to her because there'll be a temporal loop created out of accident and she'll become again the Kisshu-stalked adolescent mew. Okay, enough spoilers. Review and I'll update the next chapter soon, how does it sound?


	3. A long time

**A/N:** Starting with this chapter, things will get interesting.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew.

Enjoy and don't forget to review.

* * *

**The road I'm on…**

**Chapter Three – A long time**

Ichigo Momomiya was always a conspicuous person. She was always the first to try new things and she seemed eager to meet new people, she wore bright clothes and, most of all, she was permanently a step ahead of everything. As well as in this very moment, when she ranged from corridor to corridor through the massive spaceship, a 4 mile long silver spaceship, with automatic doors (actually, automatic _everything_) and a square translucent thick prism, hovering over the control room. She felt like a child again, over enthusiastic as she competed with the NASA representative, Daisuke Hama, which now played the role of a guide. She took him by surprise and stepped ahead of him, moving faster than she was supposed to at her age, with the cane in her hand. Yeah, it was a race. One that Ayame observed silently from the back of the group, ready to give a helping hand in case something happened to her mother or to the man. Well, Ichigo'd be lying if she said that the attraction between her daughter and Mr Hama went unnoticed. But who was she to state the obvious? Better mind her own business.

Ayame made no complaint as Daisuke offered her his arm to help her pass a higher sill, one that her mother so stubbornly refused to take. Her cheeks caught a tint of red and she looked him in the eye for a moment, before smiling a little too appreciatively.

The major asset of the situation, however, were the intricately designed corridors. The maze-like spaceship was enough for Ichigo to call on when things were getting a little too wearisome with those two love birds at her back.

_For godsakes, woman. _She felt like screaming at her daughter. _You didn't even finish signing the divorce papers yet._

Ichigo went straight to the cabin at the end of the hall, walking limply but fast enough to give the other two space. There were three large figures shadowing over a keyboard and all of them turned their heads and stood still as she came in with a thud of her heel against the ground. They said nothing, she kept quiet, but the moment was so awkward that she felt the need to nod in their direction. Their faces were a mixed combination of confusion and surprise and their stances became alarmed as they acknowledged her presence better.

They said nothing, but got up to get her out of there. The men stopped when Daisuke finally appeared in the doorway, motioning them to leave. And they did, staring a little longer at Ichigo as they passed toward the exit.

_Freaks. _She thought, rolling her eyes.

The interrogatory went on and on, making the elderly woman stifle a yawn of boredom. This was hopeless. There was no one there, besides them. No Pai to scowl at them for inspecting his computers, no Taruto with his fazing rudeness and lack of patience… no Kisshu to make sneaky remarks on their inquisitiveness.

"This spaceship. How long had it been here?" Ayame asked.

Ichigo could swear that the aliens did this on purpose. Sure, leave the spacecraft behind for them to wander around and bore the ex-mew to death.

Daisuke glanced in her daughter's direction before he responded on a low tone.

"Well, we got a call from an airline company saying that one of their pilots saw an unidentified object in Tokyo's immediate vicinity, a year ago."

"So close to the city?" Daisuke nodded.

The white-haired seemed to think about it for a moment, bringing her cold fingers to her chin as a proof of her concentration, before asking:

"Was anyone in it?"

That was the question that took the man by surprise. Well, not really, he expected that. It was just a puzzling situation in which he had to give only authorized answers, thanks to his superiors. After all, if they didn't come with the idea of bringing the naggy harridan and her cute daughter along, Daisuke would have been stuck back at the base, with the alien-experimenting going on. Closing his mouth shut, the man clearly refused to answer her question, but his gesture was enough.

So yes, there had been somebody.

"Are they alright?"

Ayame blamed herself for not stopping her mother's continuous answer-seeking session; the look on the man's face – conflicted and secretive – would bring her nothing but silence. Also, Ichigo deserved his replies, but none came. The thirty-seven year old knew that her mother craved information, anything that brought her close to her past, but NASA was clearly determined not to give her any at the moment. On the one hand, maybe it was better like this. In a week's time, a plane will bring them to a place where Ichigo will find all of her answers.

On the other hand, what if the plane was only an idea of Daisuke's to lead them up to the garden path? What if they'll be deceived? What if, in reality, there were no aliens and they brought them there to question her mother thoroughly and find out everything about the Cyniclons? That was the moment when Ayame began feeling bad for telling her mother's story to the local newspaper. When she first heard of Ichigo being the leader mew, she thought it was a joke. Until she was shown the pendant and was told all the details that at first were left on the outside. Everything clicked together. She was amazed.

The spaceship was only a small detail, Ayame sensed. It was more to this than she could see, the general picture was elusively skipping away from her. Something was off.

Now what? She sighed as she stopped listening to the rest of the old woman's monologue, but her meditation was cut short by an alarmed feeling that clawed at her insides.

It happened too quickly for startled glances to get exchanged, or for Ichigo's mind to shift into logical thinking. Daisuke's words were drowned by a buzzing sound, loud, vibrating. The unmistakable noise of engines coming to life.

"W-what's going on?" A powerful short shudder of the spaceship sent Ayame into one of the screens on the walls. The golden-ager's hand snaked around the closest object to keep herself from falling and the representative backed off so that he could reach his cell phone without worrying that he'll fall. With his shoulders pressed against another screen and his feet fixed into the floor, he dialed a number in a hurry.

"Hold your horses, Cabell, I have two civilians in here." Almost instantly, Ichigo noted as her vision stopped jumping up and down, the buzzing noise faded away until she could hear once again the shouted commands from outside.

Ayame straightened her skirt and smoothed her hair back in place, looking relieved as her eyes searched her mother for any injuries. The ex-mew wasn't so fragile, though. She was still standing as if nothing happened and she didn't look alarmed. Not at all. An intrigued look was plastered on her face as Daisuke sighed in relief.

"Don't tell me your people are testing this thing while we're inside it."

The man's face turned blank as he stared back.

"Of course not," He paused. "They're only trying to figure out the control panel."

"Mother-"

Ayame's palm cupped one of Ichigo's shoulders as the elder turned around in a fit of pique.

"Forget it." She dismissed her daughter's unbreakable grip with a shrug.

She was definitely not gonna do this. Not when they were around. She needed information, and it'll come, soon. As soon as she was alone. The elderly woman started for the corridor to see if she could get the chance to get out of there before the crazy scientists decided it's time for some more shaking.

Daisuke reached for the door before the mew could exit any further and, with one arm leaning over his head in a nonchalant manner, he spoke fast to get her to stop her in her tracks:

"Maybe the dorms would interest you more?"

"When we first entered this _bea-uty_, " Mr Hama reeled on into his guide mode as he showed the two women another level of the spaceship and he couldn't help but drag the word 'beauty' out very slowly to underline his deep admiration for the extraterrestrial aircraft. "We observed a few strange looking devices. Out of accident, of course, they got activated and the blueprint of "Sasha" came up. She has scores of rooms, including a kitchenette, a small area which we thought it was used as a bathroom and two chambers."

The bizarre look both mother and daughter shot the man was enough to stop someone in mid sentence. With a frown so deep that brought Daisuke's eyebrows together in a "v" above his eyes, his head tilted one side, just like a puppy's. Ayame couldn't hold back from laughing out loud and clenched her abdomen with both hands as tears swelled under her shut eyelids.

"Sa," She managed to choke out. "Sash-a?" That's when Ichigo chuckled silently as to send a message to the man. One that went along the lines: "She's like that sometimes. Excuse her, please."

In the same moment the man clad in black met the 73 year old woman's look, he nodded courtly.

"No offense taken." He replied to her silent stare with quiet words before adding loudly.

"Yes, the man who opened its doors for the first time was Russian. Logically, we named it after him." Ayame couldn't stop even if she wanted to.

"I'm sorry, but I thought you named it after you dog."

"Ayame!" Ichigo snapped, getting Ayame to close her mouth tightly and her amusement to burn down to a small licker in her eyes. She put her stare on her shoes, like a small child, and muttered a "sorry" so silent that Daisuke didn't hear. He was with his back to them, however, trying to get the doors to the dorms to open. And finally they did, when Ichigo leaned against the wall beside them to rest her old legs. She jumped as high as she could when she heard them moving aside.

"This, ladies, is something you don't get to see every day."

The first thing that came to view after the door disappeared in its crevice into the wall was a one person bed with a transparent mat draped over it to prevent it from damage in case someone would find it good enough to sit down on. The wooden bedside held a sign, one that Daisuke indicated toward.

"We believe this is some kind of a blazon. We found it encrusted into everything around here. These scratches," he touched them gently with two of his fingers, "are the reason we believe they were drawn manually with a very sharp and hard object." With a small knock on the wood, the representative straightened his back and turned around. "Because the material is not exactly coming from a tree. It looks like that, but it is more close to a metal."

Ayame rose one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows as her eyes scanned the bedside, but she said nothing. Ichigo merely blinked.

"And this," Daisuke began again while he held one of his arms over a small bookcase in the corner of the room, the only other piece of furniture in there. "Is a treasure, more valuable than anything that rests on this spaceship. The characters in these books were found very fascinating by our men. They couldn't decode them yet, but we are completely sure that in here rests a whole new culture."

_This must be Pai's bedroom. _Ichigo thought, looking with wild eyes once again over the purple tainted covers on the bed and over the books. They were leather bound and they looked serious, as if they could really stare toward her with real eyes. She set her jaw and turned around.

"I want to see the other bedroom."

The other one was a little smaller, but it was just an optical illusion given by the petite bed, the closet (which was empty) next to the door and the table with the two chairs in the corner. _Nothing _in this room was green, but yellow, brown and white. A limited variety of colors that clearly made Ichigo think of Taruto. If this was his room, then where was Kish's? Where was the third one?

Ichigo said nothing as the group headed for the kitchenette. She felt as if she was trapped in a museum of the future where, just like a child, she couldn't contain her frustration. Without really thinking of ditching the other two, her body turned left when she passed a corner. As if on auto pilot, without realizing that she was now alone, the ex mew took another curve before she froze in mid step. Her head rotated and only then she took in her surroundings.

The metallic floor made no noise as she put her foot down, it only lit as if it caught on fire and Ichigo's body gave a tremor in response to the shock she felt. The surprise in her eyes soon adjusted to curiosity and she took another step. Once again, the floor lit under her shoe. She looked over her shoulder to see the its color dying out when her feet came up and no longer touched it. Sensors. It actually _felt_ her movements.

As she walked a few more seconds, her orbs never once leaving the multicolored ground, something distracted her. There was something else that caught the ex-mew's attention. Apparently nothing important, just a small circular spot near the base of the wall. It was pretty hard to pick it out from the sea of details that encircled them, especially when it was on the iridescent floor, but somehow Ichigo's eyes flew right to it as if she had known all along that it was there.

Looking at it from a high proximity, it no longer seemed a coffee stain. The speck of pale brown rose from the ground, its margins formed shadows in the neon light that added depth to it. A button. Without wondering about the repercussion that might come, the white headed woman pushed a palm over it, applying enough pressure to feel the ground coming at the same level with it's margins. The spot disappeared into the floor.

"Welcome." A deep voice that dripped with a thick accent, unknown to her ears, flooded the room as if it came right through the walls and Ichigo shivered, looking over her shoulder. She sighed, realizing it was just the AI of the ship and no one came through the door looking for her, so she decided she was safe.

A creaking noise waved through the air, making the woman tense under her yellow cardigan. She had no time to react, even though her eyes, clearly confused, were scanning the fissure that started breaking into the wall in front of her, just before a door-sized piece of it parted from the rest and allowed Ichigo to step inside darkness.

'A secret room,' she thought as she strained to see through the curtain of thick blackness. Her foot hit something and with a reverberating metallic noise, the door slammed shut behind her, trapping her inside the newly found chamber. Her breath hitched in her throat but it almost stopped from coming out of her body completely when she heard a strange voice approaching her.

"So you finally came, after all these years…"


	4. Second chances

**A/N: **Okay, here it is, guys. Chapter four!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew.

Enjoy and review.

* * *

**The road I'm on…**

**Chapter Four – Second chances**

The thoughts in her head moved so fast that she didn't even had time to hear them properly. Their speed sent waves of confusion into her brain and she felt like choking on her own surprise as the lights in the room turned on with a soft hum of energy. Her body went rigid, but her expression was the slowest at this, seeing that her eyes were still widening and her mouth opening so much that she felt the cracked corners of her lips prickle from dehydration. Her fingers twitched unconsciously.

Two brown irises searched frantically through the light, only to land out of a sudden on something – more exactly someone – that completely threw the woman aback in shock. The breath in her throat hitched and a lump so stubbornly found its place there, blocking the air from coming out or in. She deciphered her thoughts as they slowed down for a short second from the surprise that was now settling in her body.

_It is impossible. _

Indeed, she knew she was somewhere in between dismay and confusion but she never thought that she'll adamantly stride toward someone who gave her the shock of her life in such a state. The tensed muscles in her face surely kept up an expression that yelled out "What the hell?!", because when the speaker caught a glimpse of it, his own face darkened.

"You're -" Her voice rose a few octaves higher than usual, but the golden liquid gaze seemed unfazed by it. "You're alive!"

"Just apparently."

What did he mean by that? The daze inducted mood was broken by the concentrated stupefaction into her figure. Seeing the question carved into her features, the alien monotonely continued:

"Come here." He indicated toward him with one of his hands, which now rotated through the air. And she did what he said.

"Touch me."

Ichigo gasped in bewilderment.

"What? No, nope. I won't. Not a chance. No."

That was to be expected. With amusement in his eyes, one that dared you to foresee his next move, Kisshu darted up with his arm straightened in her direction, but the ex-mew couldn't move so fast and before she even got a chance to realize that her brain shouted "move out of the way", his hand…

Ichigo's head spun.

His hand passed right_ through_ her abdomen, as if it was nothing more than a ray of colorful light and dust. With a last glimpse of his worried face, she crumbled down on the bed next to the ghost, into a sea of darkness.

* * *

The room was hot and musky, a sweet scent lingered around her and pulled her out from unconsciousness inch by inch until the coldness of the wall spiked through her numbing arm. A silent mutter vibrated through the air and it touched her skin in such a way that goosebumps of surprise rose from it in response. With a grunt, Ichigo turned so that she faced the ceiling without trapping her hand beneath her weight. What happened?

"…ted forty years and she faints before I even get a chance to ta– Oh you're awake!" Jumping from his place on the floor, the ghost (or whatever that was) moved toward Ichigo with concern in its eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Sighing, the woman stood up by pressing her palm into the mattress and shook her head, signaling that she was going to feel okay in a few. Instead of voicing her message, she said something else, a reply that sent Kisshu in a state of incredulity.

"I know you are not a ghost, you can't be. " At that, he gulped and nodded a little.

"No," he hurried to say back, both of his – its – hands at Ichigo's eye level. She noticed the lines in his palms, the texture of his skin, he seemed so real! But wait, wasn't he supposed to look translucent? Disconnecting from her own uncomfortable racing mind, the ex-mew stared. And stared. And continued staring.

"No, you're right. I'm not." He said matter-of-factly, raising his chin so he looked down at her over his nose. "I'm a hologram, one that I – or the Kisshu you knew – recorded four decades ago." That was what clicked her body and brain together and she signaled it with a jolt.

"Four decades? But you look young!"

"Yes, well," smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of his head, he shrugged. "I'm not sure you'll believe me…" The hesitant figure scanned her face for any trace of doubt or skepticism and found none. Well, she fought aliens, right? And now she talked to a hologram. She would believe him.

"Cyniclons have a way of… staying young. That is if they achieve the right conditions for it." Feeling a little nauseous and maybe just a tiny bit confused, Ichigo straightened her back, the small creaking noises coming from it apparently reached the others ears. He raised an eyebrow and she copied his motion, watching him through narrow eyes.

"And what are those… right conditions?" As if the hologram was put on repeat, it shrugged again and scratched the back of his head, gaining a little grimace from the ex-mew.

"Erm…" He didn't look sure of what to tell her. Kisshu – or his image, more likely – smirked to hide his puzzlement. "It has something to do with labs and bodily fluids and some kind of device – oh, we reached my favorite subject!" He chimed, jumping up and down like an enthusiastic child. "Hear this, I've exersated my speech –"

"Cut to the chase." Clearly losing her patience, Ichigo sighed.

"Well, yeah. You're right, I mean, the real Kisshu said that you'll be like this and – but by the way, I think you're cute, you know. I kind of see what he saw –"

"Now." Angrily standing up, the ex-mew closed in on him with a deadly glare, one that even though it brought no harm to the hologram, still scared it pretty badly. The green haired teenager – hologram – backed off so that he put about three feet between their bodies. Well, not as if he really was corporeal, but…

"There's a small metallic box under the bed." He indicated with his index finger toward the floor, but his eyes stayed on her face. "Take it and push the blue button underneath."

Ichigo couldn't believe her ears. Blue buttons and metallic boxes. She felt as if she was in a stupid hidden camera show, except everything was going on in an alien spaceship. And she really faced a good looking hologram, which reminded her. Why didn't his smirk resemble so much Kish's? Was it because the thing in front of her didn't exactly feel emotions? Or anything at all, for that matter?

Sliding carefully to the floor so that her knees and elbows allowed her to maintain her equilibrium, Ichigo pushed one hand through the quilt that draped over the bed's edge and covered the space beneath it. She felt the ragged moquette until her finger tips found something cold and square shaped. Snaking them around it, she dragged the box out of its hiding place and stared at it in awe. Well, it looked like a jewelry case, except that it didn't have a key hole, a cap or anything like that, just the shape and size – small and ironically delicate. Before Ichigo pushed the button – a fluorescent triangular shaped button, made of plastic and encrypted in the lower side of the object – she asked:

"What will happen?" Kisshu's smirk grew in a grin, his upper lip revealed his fangs as he happily responded:

"Everyone has regrets, right?" Nodding in confusion, the woman's eyes darted up to his handsome face as his thick hair tickled his chin in a nod.

"Even you. This device will give you a chance to set them straight, to erase them from your memory." Unsure if what he said was good or bad, Ichigo's tone shakily dropped with suspicion and a little annoyance.

"This will _brainwash_ me?" the snow-haired accentuated the word to get him understand from the start that she refused it. Kisshu panicked, swinging his hands in the air to get her attention and he hollered with fear that she won't do as he'd say. "No, no, nothing like that! It will just create a time loop starting from 58 years ago." Ichigo tensed at his weird reaction and the hologram saw that. "You'll get a second chance at life, you'll go back to being fifteen and in love."

Rage swept through Ichigo's chocolate eyes and with a deadly calm, she stood up, making sure of taking the box with her.

"You think I'll give up on my family just like that?" Wide eyes met her glare.

"Bu-but this is what you've wanted, you won't remember you ever had a family or any of this!" Kisshu's hands showed her around the room and then they pointed at her.

"But I lived my life without having you around – I mean Kish." She corrected, moving her head from side to side to clear her mind. "I proved myself that I can do it! Why would I want to go back?" Ichigo started freaking out and shouted from the tops of her lungs until she heard her desperate voice. Mechanically, her lips sealed together, interrupting any sounds.

The look on the hologram's face stopped her dead in her tracks. Then, as if this wasn't really enough for her brain to register, he stepped so close that if he were a solid man, their noses would have touched. She could sense his hot breath on her cheek, but she knew this was just her imagination dictating, and when his palm cupped her cheek, even if his pixels – or what he was made of – didn't make contact with her skin, she still felt the closure. His face turned blank as his head inclined to one side to look into her eyes better and anticipate her gestures; at that moment, Ichigo felt like she was being read like an open book and it was clearly something that the real Kish made her feel. Why did it feel so… unnatural for her heart to beat erratically as she admired his flawless face? This was not Kisshu, he wasn't made of flesh and bones, but of energy. What if the generator of the ship broke down? He'll disappear. His pleading honey eyes, too. His whisper, though, helped her make one of the hardest decisions in her life, the last one she had to take.

"Because I love you." The inflection of his voice convinced her that indeed, it was the alien who spoke to her. She was so naïve... and she closed her eyes, to feel his kiss upon her lips. It never came.

"I want to, Ichigo, but I can't." The regret he let out at once with his words convinced the woman to shut her eyes tighter, before opening them and hitting the button without a warning, out of a sudden.

"You will."

"Be careful who you'll love." With his voice ringing in her ears, she let herself go, taken by a sea of light, pulled back into her past.

A second chance.

* * *

Ichigo sensed that her body was easier to manoeuvre than before, and she felt… young. However, as her eyelids uncovered her eyes, the thought vanished and she caught herself staring into space.

_What the hell did I just think?_

A pale object passed before her face, left, right. Left, right, accompanied by an appealing voice requesting her something that she couldn't quite hear.

"Kittycat, anybody home? Are you even on this planet, honey?" The mew realized she must have been out of it for a while, because she now stood in the middle of a battlefield with Kisshu at her side, him holding unto his Sai as he tried to get her to focus on their fight.

She was home.

"Hey, I thought you wanted to surrender when you stopped your attack like that." The sneaky remark hid his relief for the fact that she was fine. Then, just before he flew into the sky to give her time to contra attack, his lips met hers.

* * *

Ichigo's back in her teens, so review? I can write interesting things going on between them, you know you want to... :D


	5. Signs of heat

**A/N: Mew Ichigoxkish, MewBlueberryLuvsKisshu , Pirate lass to Jack Sparrow, Rasain **and** Cranky**, I want to give you special thanks for reviewing. You deserve a long, sweet Kish/Ichigo chapter, and I promise you'll get it soon. It would be great if you could tell me what do you like the most about these two, it'll give me some ideas. I'm so glad you like this story.

Also, **Cyber Girl** and **123ellen-e**, you two rock.

You're amazing, guys. Keep it up, you inspire me.

Now, I'm afraid I find it kinda hard of keeping Ichigo/Kisshu in character when they're around each other. But it's a challenge, so I take it. :D I hope you like it. There'll be Pudding/Taruto and Lettuce/Pai later, and that's what I call fun. I hope you'll like this chapter, even though there's not much action going on.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own TMM.

Enjoy.

* * *

**The road I'm on…**

**Chapter Five – Signs of heat**

Kisshu had a glint in his eyes that predicted bad things.

She still felt the passionate burning of his smooth mouth pressing against hers when she yelled out her attack. Kish took every little chance he saw to get close to her, but the feistiness of the kitten was back and she made sure he won't peck her lips like that again. The light coming from the Strawberry Bell dispersed, as if cut by sharp claws and poisonous rose thorns came her way at an alarming speed. Ichigo ducked them by jumping aside.

"Heh. This is child's play." The snicker came to its peak with a squeal and a bruise on the forehead.

"Taru-Taru, stop fooling around!"

The moment Pudding sprung from the ground was a second away from the contact between her and the young alien's body. For a second, pure shock and amazement crippled unto the tile-colored framed face, then his features twisted into anger as he realized they were crashing and the little monkey wasn't going to do anything but hold his vest tightly with both hands. The wind flew past their ears and Ichigo froze in mid charge as her eyes caught the stain of yellow falling from the sky, but the short instant it took her to turn around and jump to catch Pudding was a little too long, because as she reached their level, they already made contact with the dry soil beneath. A cloud of brown dust was dislocated from around their bodies and draped over the two, making it impossible for everyone else to see if the kids were hurt or not. Pink boots touched the soil and moved no more. A green headed figure above the mew leader was still as a rock, no air coming in or out from his lungs while another body, taller and more massive than the previous one, whipped his head around from his own private little battle with Lettuce to stare in the direction of the two fallen children. Nobody made a sound.

As a wind breeze drove away the dust, Ichigo's agile eyes searched in sheer terror, her irises mirroring the same thought as everybody's. They were too high.

As the last particles rose towards the sky, blonde strands of hair carefully tucked into little braids shook as the girl buried her face into the alien's shoulder and snuggled closer, mentally still caught in the fall. Everyone sighed at once, the mews for their monkey girl and the aliens for their youngest as the sight met their gazes. Pale arms sneaked around Pudding's waist as Taruto somehow managed to turn them so that he cushioned the fall for her. So Pudding was a little scared, apparently, but fine. The other one, however, scanned the blue sky with glazed eyes and warmed the girl's cheek with fast breaths.

"Taruto!" The roar descended from upwards at the same time with Kisshu. With his weapons no longer in his hands, he lowered himself to face the member of his team, but the little mew jumped back from Tart's grasp as she saw the other alien next to them.

Taruto let his fingers scrap gently at the back of his head, then groaned out an "Urgh, I'm fine," , just before he tried to get up. He was forced back down, action to which he responded with a heated glare.

"No, let me see." Adamantly pushing away the hand that covered Taruto's chest, Kisshu lightly scrutinized the pale skin. Just under the soft material of his vest, five scratches let traces of blood roll over his nipple, before they were gulped thirstily by the earth. Even though, there were no gaps in his clothing, so the girl's nails didn't touch his chest directly. Putting aside the granules of sand forwarded by the air into the cuts, there was no other bacteria that could affect his health. Nodding in self approval, Kisshu stood up from his kneeling position and spared another glance to his teammate, before spinning on the soles of his feet to meet Pai's eyes. At his back, Taruto leaped to a standing position.

"I told you I'm fine."

Ichigo saw Kish send a message with his eyes to the purple haired figure at her back, and she strained her gaze to try to read it, but when Kish's stare fixed on her shortly, her own orbs rolled down to her shoes. Still, the next thing she saw when she looked back to search for his smirk, was only the air rippling and a hole in the ground was the only thing that proved the aliens' presence.

The Mews all hurried past her, Mint accidentally hitting her in the ribs with the elbow. Wincing, the mew leader caressed her side to soothe the searing pain.

"Pudding, are you okay?"

But Ichigo stood still, battling on the inside with her racing thoughts. The monkey girl seemed unharmed and that wasn't what alarmed her. The source of her agitated mind was the serious look she never even caught a glimpse before in those usually warm golden eyes. A look so troubled and incensed that stirred a feeling deep within her core, one of admiration.

Her belly filled with a melting sense of desire, hot and irritating, and she took a sharp intake of breath and opened her eyes. When did she close them? A concerned gaze was sent back at her, engulfed in a darkened brown, that almost looked black.

"Is something wrong, na no da?" Making sure that she kept her mouth shut to stop any betraying sounds from coming out, she shook her head from left to right and choose to ignore the strange expressions of her friends. Her cheeks burned and her stomach was being invaded by flying insects, some may call butterflies. They felt more like locusts, jumping all around and changing her mood into annoyance. She needed something. Something that she couldn't quite find the word for.

Just before they all reached the café, realization dawned.

* * *

The next morning, stiffness broke through her body. It fought her every movement as she crawled from between the sheets to stop the alarm.

_Damn it, it's Saturday and I forgot to deactivate it. Why does it have to happen to me?_

Once the silence safely sheathed her again, an awareness infiltrated into her brain and she found every little sound she made extremely loud and painful to the ears. Darkness was always a factor that gave the illusion of noise, even when out there nothing awaited. No monsters, she left them behind when she turned nine. No neighbors, thankfully the area she lived in was quite peaceful and calm. No owls to sing in the middle of the nights. Nothing. Well, maybe just an alien, but he was so silent that she could swear he didn't even move, afraid that she'll wake up and throw something at him. Or perhaps he was trained this way, to move as if he wasn't really there, and to cut the throats of his enemies before they acknowledge his presence. Even now, after a whole year, she still wondered if he was just toying with her, learning her habits just to find a weak point, or was there something more? If it was, then her body's reaction wasn't really strange, but the purr that she suppressed each time he closed in on her to make her feel uncomfortable was a total give away that her cat genes responded to his charm. Not the human, the animal inside.

Would he be disappointed to find out that she - the human side of her - was still rejecting him?

_Why would I even think that? It's not as if I really care._

Ichigo made sure to lock the bathroom door before she easily slipped out of her PJ's and grasped the faucet to steady herself as she got into the shower.

_Stop thinking of him. _She commanded herself, and pressed her back against the cold wall. _Think about Masaya, instead. The picnic's going to be great, I have the cake, he has the sodas. The park will be empty because it's too early, so we'll be alone. Maybe he will even kiss me, and after we finish eating we'll go somewhere interesting. It sounds great, can't wait! _

Silky little droplets of warmth slid down her cleavage, caressing the skin and tempting the nerves beneath to relax. Their pressure massaged away the tension in her muscles and she closed her eyes, relinquishing in the pleasant feeling. Even though the water splashed against her shoulders with enough force to send even smaller tears in her hair, she sighed, taking enough time to push her fingers through it, comb it back and drag the edge of her nails down her neck in an imaginary kiss. They scraped lightly, red marks surfacing through the peachy tan and parting the warmth of the liquid for enough time to start feeling the coldness of the late February coming through the open window of her bathroom. Ichigo took her time as she felt for the soap and weighed it in her palm before gently scrubbing it against her thigh. It contained an extract of chamomile which helped ease the feeling of last evening's hits she took from Kisshu –

Ichigo opened her eyes and pushed her body further into the water spray to chase away the burning liquid golden in her mind and every little trace of bubbles, then turned off the water and stepped out of her bathroom, wrapped from head to toes in a fluffy white towel that protected her from the chilly breeze inside her room. Her eyes averted toward the clock on her bedside table. The red glow from the digital numbers reflected into the rhodium, blurring the mew's vision through the early hour of the morning. She still had fifty minutes before the picnic with Masaya.

Rubbing away the wetness from her bath, she slipped into her clothes in record time to keep away from her skin any goosebumps. She had enough of the coldness of the season, good thing the sun rose from within its folds faster than it had before. Out of the corner of her eye, she suspiciously spied the window. It was fogged as if someone breathed directly at it and for a moment she found the thought ironic as she turned on the computer. Well, that until she caught a tint of green through the curtains. She always did, but she usually ignored it and minded her own business. Today was no different as she sat down, swinging her feet in the air till her bottom landed on the chair, then folded them under her in an attempt to make herself comfortable. The first thing that popped up when she opened her internet browser were her recent searches and she clicked the first site on the list, carefully hiding the monitor from the window. She felt a smile creeping on her face as she thought of him on one of the sakura tree's branches, above the balcony, thinking that he remained unseen even when she paced the length of her room a foot away from the glass door separating them. The mew knew it was hopeless to argue with him every time about the stalking, so she backed off, thinking that she'd better change her own schedule than try to change him. It was easier this way.

For a short moment, in sheer curiosity, her eyes glued themselves on the loading bar at the bottom of the screen, but her ears tried picking up any kind of sound coming from outside. And a bit faster than she expected, she heard it – a low guttural sound much like a grumble aimed in her direction. The hotness in her womb returned with full force and she briefly gripped the edge of the desk to keep her hands from lowering under it and do their job. Just after the wave passed, she smiled, certain that _h_e couldn't see it. Just then, the article she accessed got her full attention and the sound died down to a murmur.

_The mating habits of the Iriomote cats. _

Lip synching through the words, Ichigo felt her own eyes widen and cheeks redden as images accompanied the information she gathered. Self conscious out of a sudden, she grabbed her knees and pulled them to her chest to preserve warmth and hide herself.

_If this is what I'm going through, then God forbid him to ever come close to me._

* * *

She had been right. The park was empty, only a few joggers here and there animated the picture. The wind died down as the sun peaked through the branches above the bench she was sitting on, with the food basket next to her. Dew coated the leaves and droplets rolled like pearls glistening in the orange light of the morning as they came off them and kissed with a pop one of the girl's cheeks. She closed her eyes in surprise, before she brought her palm up to meet the wet skin. For a second, the girl stared intently at the lines in her palm, now sparkly and cold in the soft breeze. They... blurred and mashed together. A gasp came out from between her pomegranate flavored lips. A symbol shaped itself in front of her eyes. Circular stripes, sharply dug into an wooden bed table. Two rows of dagger strokes, each in a different direction, judging by the scratches made into their edges. They came apart before uniting into a diamond form that framed three punctures.

A deep voice thundered through her ears. _"We believe this is some kind of a blazon. We found it encrusted into everything around here."_

Her body jerked in an upright position. It was a crown. She could see it as she stood over it, closer than before. It was a crown, one that had the blade of a dagger buried through the middle and the image strangely reminded her of war. The kind of war held between kingdoms, the ambition of a king to keep glory on his side. It was a blazon, but not one that she recognized from her history books. A piece so beautifully carved in a cursive style that she was tempted to think of it as a character of another language.

_ "These scratches are the reason we believe they were drawn manually with a very sharp and hard object." _

Who told her this? The mark burned her hand and the margins were set aflame as if someone threw a match into gasoline. An explosion of light and heat radiated from her palm so much that Ichigo felt it on her face, her eyes became teary and the blazon blurred again. Cold wind washed over her and drove away the pain.

Blinking, the sky above her took its place before her irises, making a strange undiluted combination of blue and brown. The memory of the bed covered with a violet quilt was pulled away from her reach and back into subconsciousness, the blazon becoming so little that her mind couldn't really bring it back into prim-plan.

The reverie was cut short by a pair of black jeans and a soccer jacket with white streaks on the arms. Before the mew got a chance to raise her chin and stare at his face, a cheery voice broke through the haziness of her brain.

"Morning, Momomiya-san." Nothing new under the sun. The tone was honey sweet and a little fake as it tried to tame down interest. "You were spacing out earlier, are you feeling okay?" A deep breath of fresh air and Masaya's cologne was enough to pull a bright smile on her face and chase the feeling of amnesia away. A sharp nod in his direction did magic, as the boy extended his arm to help her stand and hugged her, for a moment surprising the mew. An imaginary veil was pulled aside from between them when they touched and the boy's handsome and light aboriginal aspect was becoming more and more familiar. Were a couple of days enough to make her forget him like this?

Ichigo gulped down the nervousness that sent a lump in her throat. With a slight quirk of an eyebrow, her attentiveness to his fumbling fingers was given away.

"I have something really important to talk with you, about our relationship, but we should find a place to sit down and eat first." Curiosity peaked through Ichigo's features as she fixated her stare on the serious face of her boyfriend. His tone morphed into a low line of sound. Standing straight to wash away the dullness, his creamless coffee colored hair tapped against his forehead in thin strands. They looked shiny and smelled nice, exactly like black coffee, spiced with a little with pepper and cinnamon. He clearly had something important to tell her, seeing that he moved rigidly, as if he was tensing to keep his temper in check.

_Weird, I wonder why does he act like this? _

Ichigo allowed him to pull her away from under the dew coated tree before she cleared her throat and inquisitively cocked her head. Her shoes drew her legs toward him.

"Is something wrong?" She asked as she strained to take a look at him over his shoulder, but he just turned his head to hide his expression.

"N-not r-really." He stammered. For a few feet, or so, he dragged her gently as he caged her hand in his and seemed to be unable to let her go; then, as if he thought better of what to say to her to stop her from questioning, the boy started. "I-I just..." Masaya stopped abruptly, causing Ichigo to bump into his back and to stumble back, cupping her nose. The young girl frowned, taking a step forward to look him in the eye; he no longer shied away, but sternly stared back at her.

"Ichigo."

"What is it?" Clenching his jaw for a moment, the boy seemed to think hard on how to phrase his request. Pitch black eyes hypnotized her into staying still and quiet, waiting for him to continue, and when he fisted his palm around her wrist, Ichigo looked stunned.

He kept silent, breathing steadily through his nose. Even though he looked so aggressive at that moment, the girl couldn't subside her cat's wish to get closer to his body and feel the warmth radiating. Her ears and tail didn't pop out, but a purr put heavy pressure on her vocal cords and Masaya took this as an encouraging thing. He came closer to her, looking down into her half closed, dreamy eyes and whispered, no longer aggressive and confused.

"I want to take this relationship a step further." His other hand found hers and he stroke its back to calmly reassure her that everything was okay. As he lowered his mouth to her ear, he murmured seductively: "I want to have sex with you." At this, Ichigo froze, but his lips found hers own in an urgent kiss and melted her stiffness away.

A frown came over deep brown orbs in a grimace as the alien cocked his head to take a look at the scene beneath his feet. His body was suspended into thin air and spoke on its own of suspicion and puzzlement. The wind whipped at his hair, playing it from side to side, hiding the jealous glare that spelled "murder" in capital letters. The slit pupils of his eyes now looked more terrifying than ever and were a clear warning.

Not clear enough for some, he thought, then snickered in a perverted manner as he looked at the boy that was passionately kissing Ichigo and cradled her into his arms. Kish didn't blame him, no. Not this time. As an exception from the rule,_ this time_ his koneko was at fault, because the expression of pure bliss tainted with a deep blush was proof that she was enjoying every little moment they shared. Something had to be done.


	6. He is dangerous

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew.

Enjoy.

* * *

**The road I'm on…**

**Chapter Six – He is dangerous**

The night was still young for someone like him. The moon didn't even reach its peak across the sky. With no sun rays beaming down on the ground, everything felt cold and dead, bathed in the silver light that brought a tint of melancholy and sharpness to everything. The shadows gave the space beneath the tree a depth that lacked during the day, like a pool of ink. Except, the darkness moved within darkness and with a slight narrow and adjustment of the eyes, the alien saw what exactly pushed away the black. It was small and fury, one of its front paws was dyed in orange, a weird combination of colors. The fur on its back stood upward as the cat stopped tapping against the ground silently, feeling his eyes on the back of its little oval head. Then a pair of deep green eyes shot to Kisshu's, widening in fear suddenly before the cat took off running. It took no more than a brief second to dig his claws into the thick soft brown and to teleport back to the branch he previously sat on, with a fear frozen cat in his lap.

Ichigo slept soundly, tugging the edge of her coverlet up to her chin and shook slightly under his stare, even though his presence remained unknown to her sleeping mind.

Almost at the same time, the animal he held tightly between his pale hands did the same. It shook from head to toe, but not from the cold. The pain that came from the alien's claws was so much that the little being couldn't even mew in protest.

_Good,_ Kish thought, uninterested in protecting the cat from his own hurting grasp. _I don't want it to wake her up._

The memories from the past two days were still fresh in his mind, but they all bowed down to one. Ichigo kissing that vermin. It disgusted him as much as always seeing her continuously rejecting his pleas. Even now, she sighed happily while she dreamt of him. Why couldn't it be someone else instead of the brunette? _Anyone_ would have been a way better option and maybe a challenge to his fighting. What fun should Kisshu have by sending one of his Dragon swords in the human's direction and kill _it _right then and there? No combat. Ichigo always picked losers, a young, beautiful, graceful little lady like her in such company was unacceptable, they couldn't even prove their love for her properly. Instead, they asked her to have sex with them.

_Pathetic. _With a grimace of disgust and the powerful clench of his jaw, the alien teenager growled lowly. The masseter muscles stood out visibly, proof that he struggled to keep control over himself and not go inside Ichigo's room. Who knew what he'll do?

Silence was a thick layer of everything, not even a bird, dog or any other animal moved, besides the one he firmly held pressed against his thigh. As if it rarely happened, Kisshu's head darted toward the street below, where no car passed.

_The four wheeled boxes are quiet tonight. The metal of the parked one isn't even shining in the moonlight. _He noted.

A small pressure of two paws on his lower belly attracted his curious stare, as the cat had one of its eyes closed as it tried to stand up. With a sharp breath, Kisshu released the poor thing from the cruel cage of his hands. It just froze again and widened both of its eyes to look incredulously in his direction, the thought he read was clear and loud.

_You let me go? _But the smile on his face was huge when the idea struck. Gripping the lower side of the fluffy being and gently scratching its ears, he brought the golden liquid of his orbs back to the window sill and spied the sleeping form in the bed across the balcony. His kitten was in for a big surprise.

And with her reply to Aoyama's request still ringing in his ears, Kish teleported in her room with silent movements.

* * *

The next morning, Ichigo woke up with a head ache. It sounded like African drum beats in her ears, the ones that increase the suspense before a sacrifice. Her eyes, too, were so unfocused that even the desk in front of her looked like a tiger. Was she really in a jungle? The giggle that came out through her throat surprised not even her, but something else that layed at the foot of her bed. A straight line of black that snaked from side to side. A snake?

_Nah, too much imagination this morning._

Blinking away the fog that clouded her vision, everything got a clear shape and Ichigo's first reaction to what she saw was to look back behind her toward the balcony doors and see if they were locked. And they were.

…_then how?_

Turning her head back to her bed, a pair of cute eyes reached toward her with a deep plea.

"Meow."

* * *

"A cat! In you bedroom. And the door was_ locked_, Ichigo?"

"That's what I said!"

"Pudding is curious, why a cat, na no da?"

"Because it's small and cute?" Ichigo asked in return to the younger girl's inquisitive glance with a small shrug. Zakuro seemed interested in their conversation as she strode into the kitchen.

"And the perfect present." She added, holding her hands up as if surrendering as she received a glare from Pudding when she tried to get the empty dish in front of the girl.

"But who sent it?" Mint hummed as she scratched her chin in thought and narrowed her eyes as she scanned the wall. Her racing mind was interrupted by Pudding, whom jumped from her place excitedly and put her feet up on the chair, gripping them with their arms.

"Kisshu, who else, na no da!" She swung back and forth, smiling widely as she gave the response on a high octave.

Zakuro skeptically searched everyone's faces as they looked at her and lowered her voice, so that she let the impression that something wrong was happening.

"Yes, but it is unusual." The model dragged a chair from beneath the table and sat down, wiping her wet hands on her apron. The material was soft between her fingers and she buried them deeper, letting them rest there."We all know he does this differently." Her orbs rested on Ichigo's face, whom all of a sudden bowed her head in awareness as she blushed a deep scarlet.

_She is right,_ Ichigo thought as she let out a sigh. _Kisshu usually grabs me and kisses me, or attacks me. He never brings presents, so why?_

The determination in Ichigo's eyes caused Mint a grin. Her teammate was clearly confused, exactly as she was.

"If I were you, I'd stop wondering and just enjoy it." The brunette stated loudly, raising her chin so that she was facing her idol. Zakuro's eyebrow arched considerably, an air of smugness draping over her all of a sudden.

"Could it be…" The woman heard Lettuce whisper.

The green haired mew, who was moping the floor in silence until now, froze. The broom in her hand ceased moving and the girls all looked at her as soon as the usual sound of cloth chafing against cloth stopped. Sure enough, she had her eyes and mouth wide open.

Pudding straightened her back to chase away the eerie mood, but when she started asking her question, Lettuce's head whipped to stare right at Ichigo.

"Could it be…"

"What?" With a swoosh of air, the broom fell and hit the ground. Ichigo flinched.

"Does Kisshu know what that feline symbolizes?"

The frown that settled on everyone's faces gave Lettuce a feeling of nausea. They didn't know, either.

"What does it mean, na no da?"

Taking a deep breath of air and coming closer to the table, the mew pressed her hands palm down on it and looked each one of the girls straight in the eye, all the shame and nervousness were put away. On a low voice, not a whisper, but not quite a clear tone, she said.

"Well, it is said that the cat is many things. The mystery of it brought it a bad name, one associated with witchcraft, especially if the cat is black." At this, Ichigo trembled and fumbled with her fingers under the table. Lettuce saw this, but stated nothing. "Also, it can mean that it is time to make some new changes in your life and a warning that you should keep an open mind, but here's comes the creepy part." She paused and Pudding leaned over the table in her direction, very interested. Zakuro spied on the mew leader, as Ichigo gulped nervously and let her eyes slide down to the untouched slice of strawberry cake in front of her. She was the only one that didn't eat it, probably because she was so busy with asking them advice with Aoyama and everything.

Lettuce cocked her head to the side and stared intently at Ichigo's lowered eyelids. The magenta haired teen was trying to ignore the burning eyes on her face and she clenched her jaw.

"Considered evil, the black cats were sacrificed. As I said, there's a link between them and black magic, but it is said that they can see the Underworld. Their eyes can penetrate into the darkest corners of the world of the dead. They guard it."

"Cool, have you seen any spirits lately, na no da?"

Ichigo kept her head down, but mumbled, clearly addressing Lettuce.

"So you say that Kish knows all this?"

"No, but it is a possibility." She shrugged. "Also, he could have just given it to you because you have cat genes, too. So there are fifty/fifty chances that he plans something."

"You're right..." Mint added, propping her head on the back oh her hand. Just then, she changed the subject, giving all of the girls a smirk, then to Ichigo a wink. "So... you say that Aoyama wants... something more?" Pudding was now apparently ignoring the tone her colleague used, but she had a smile that showed curiosity.

The air was hot, even though the window was open and the door was creaked. The discussion seemed to bring some heat into the room as everyone gathered around Ichigo, and as she thought more and more about it, she started feeling unsure. Was she right telling them this? Maybe she should have kept it for herself. Still, the uncertainty that came over her every time she thought about her boyfriend and the picnic from yesterday was too much, and the feeling could only be tamed if she told them. Now, they all bugged her over it. And the mischievous grin on Mint's face was scary. Ichigo bit the inside of her cheek.

Zakuro was intently watching the two of them as she crossed her arms over her chest, pushing it up. Her back was pressed into the chair and her hair hung in a low ponytail at the base of her neck.

_I should have talked to her... _The redhead thought as she stood up to put the uneaten cake in the fridge, completely brushing the remarks aside. It wasn't their business. It was her own private life.

"Onee-san..." Pudding whispered as she came over to her, leaving the ballerina behind.

"Yeah?" Looking down, Ichigo saw the monkey girl scanning her shoes and hiding her face. "What's wrong?"

"Pudding knows it was a secret, but I kind of told Shirogane about the vision you had yesterday..." Chocolate orbs fogged and Ichigo stopped breathing as shock appeared on her face, everything important until then disappeared. The younger girl brought her chin up, but still refused to look at her.

"I-I... described the thing you saw, na no da..."

"The blazon?" She cleared, and the yellow clad silhouette shook a little with guilt as she nodded.

"Aha... He had said that it never existed in the history of our planet, but they were often used to indicate something."

The teen closed the fridge door behind her and leaned on it, enjoying the coldness spreading through her back. Pudding grimaced and changed her tone.

"Daggers, swords and all this kind of stuff usually mean war, or sacrifice. The crown means royalty, na no da. Maybe there's something that brings them together -"

"Not on our planet, huh?" Pudding gave a shake of her head as she confirmed.

The mew leader patted the girl's shoulder, before she turned to the others with determination glinting deep into her eyes and a frown.

"Guys, thanks for all the help but I have to go." Each one of them sent her uncomprehending stares, but the redhead turned her back and, without changing her uniform, she stepped outside the cafe.

_Ryou will be fuming when I get back..._

The Sunday sky was clear of any clouds and the sun hit her hair, making it shine as it bounced from side to side. Her feet moved against the ground rapidly, but then slowed down as she entered the park.

"Kisshu!" She yelled out loud, gaining a few strange stares from those around her. She spun on her heels, cupping her hands around her mouth and yelled again, this time louder and clearer. "Kish!"

"Hey, pretty kitty. Missed me?" Her senses pushed her back from the body that appeared out of nowhere and she hissed inwardly. The cocky grin on his face was the first thing that Ichigo saw before she felt the light peck of lips. This time, though, adrenaline cursed through her veins mixed with blood and her reaction was faster than normal as her nails left red marks on his cheek. With surprise in his eyes, he flew back to stare at her, blocking the sunlight from coming down on her. The mew had to narrow her eyes, because the rays bordered his body and hit her directly, causing a few tears to roll out of the corners of her eyes. They stung. A brief second was enough for her to settle which matter was more important momentarily, and the blazon lost.

"Stop the charade and tell me what's with the cat."

She felt the exact moment when his grin disappeared from his face and a blank expression settled over his figure.

"A present." The monotone tone he used sent shivers down her spine, and all of her senses cried out that something was wrong. And it definitely was as he came down toward her and planted his feet unto the ground, as he looked her straight in the eye. A glare. Kisshu was tense.

"A _present_?" Ichigo spat, dropping her eyelids. The alien in front of her flinched at the word, but nodded sharply. "You never gave me presents before." She stated. As he opened his mouth to say something, Ichigo pushed her index finger up to stop him. "And kisses don't count."

One of the boy's hands cradled the other and pressed down on it, letting out a few cracks. The mew took a step back, suspiciously spying on him. Masha trembled at her hip, warily watching the alien.

"Yes. Honey." The pause in his sentence made Ichigo tense, too. "A present."

"Why did you start giving them now, all of a sudden?"

The smirk on his lips could be heard in his voice as he said loudly. "Because I want to take this relationship a step further." Ichigo gasped and when she pushed her palm over her face to stop it, it was too late, the alien saw it. "And now you know that cats symbolize many things." He continued, as a matter of factly.

_He was listening. To everything... To Aoyama, to Lettuce... Kish is planning something._

Taking a deep breath through her fingers, the girl sent the uneasiness from her throat away, then lowering her arm to the pendant in her pocket, she whispered, ready to pounce if he made a wrong move.

"And the blazon with the dagger and the crown?"

That's when Kisshu looked struck by a lighting, but Ichigo's eyes were too slow to catch his movement and the quick hit in the side of the head was enough to bring a curtain of darkness over her eyes. She felt her body being caught in mid-fall and his hot breath on her throat, then she lost consciousness.

"_That_," Kisshu whispered to her still form, "is an entirely different thing, one which does not concern you."

The air rippled behind them and the smirk on his face darkened as he let her down on the bed.


End file.
